We Love Girls!

There has been a bit of discussion in the social websphere about support for women’s wakeboarding, or more specifically, Alliance’s support for female wakeboarders. We wanted to offer some perspective on this discussion from our position. Without a question, throughout the 16+ year history of our media entity we have done more to support ladies riding wakeboards than all other media entities combined. At one point we even had a female editor on staff, long before it was hip or PC. Also, when our competitors dropped women’s riding altogether from their contest series, Alliance continued to show support for the women through the Monster Energy Wake Park Triple Crown series of events which was the first event series in the US to pay women cable riders. We put women riders on television through Fuel TV in our series “Pull by Alliance Wake Magazine” at our expense, and we put ladies in the magazine and on the cover of Alliance long before many current wake media entities existed.

First girl cover of Alliance Wake. Emily Durham. April/May 2000.

Alliance has a specific editorial voice, which is founded in exposing legitimate riding and personalities but also has a very prominent dose of irreverence and comedy. This tongue-in-cheek approach is a component of many of our editorial pieces, and has been since our inception. One edit feature that has had this tone since it was conceived is our annual Superlative Awards. Alliance Wake creates these awards at the end of each year to recognize and make fun of things that happened throughout the sport for that year. To date everyone but Phil Soven has found our Superlative Awards funny, Phil may have too, we just can’t find him. So, if you don’t like it or appreciate Alliance’s tone, edit or form of comedy, that is OK with us. But do not create controversy and aim currently politically charged language at us because you don’t like what we made light of.

Amber Wing

Oh yes, and for our annual awards, specifically Rider of the Year. The Alliance ROTY is not a participation award, it has always been about much more than riding, more than doing new tricks, more than winning contests. It has been about all of those things but also what a rider did for the community to grow the sport, what they did to responsibly represent the industry and how they aligned with Alliance’s vision of the ideal professional athlete. This year we chose not to select a female ROTY because there was not a clear standout to US in all categories. To be clear, the award was not “replaced” with the lighthearted “Wake Butt of the Year” award.

Jen Gilanfarr. Amongst the Sierra.

Alliance has always promoted quality female content in issue after issue, on our website and through our social channels. But we need to know what the girls are doing in order to do this – so if you rip and represent, please send photos and video clips and let us know if you have any great ideas. This is how the Wakebabes edit and cover came about in the August issue 2016. The girls proactively had an idea and a way to execute and we ran with it. If you do not send in content, how can we promote what you are doing? If you have an idea, reach out to our editor or any photographer and make it happen. We are all working towards the common goal of showing the sport in a good light, but we need content to do so.

Cassandra Scott. Amongst the Sierra cover!

If you want to promote the sport yourself, as well as act responsibly for the industry and set a good example for the youth, we suggest that you start by wearing a lifejacket and a helmet, because if you are an example to look up to, then you may be responsible to influencing a child who makes a decision that ends in tragedy.

Maria Cuenca Nuñez fully protected while riding in a wake park.

For the record, not once in the history of Alliance has anyone ever reached out and solicited a female rider to shoot photos based on her looks rather than her talent. Alliance has had a Girl Page on the website and magazine since we launched which is entirely based on sponsor and advertiser support for it since day one. If your grief with Alliance is about support for women’s riding you are looking in the wrong direction.

Hayley Smith in front of the lens.

Hayley Smith wrote a good post about this whole situation. Thought it could be good to take part of it since it is from a female riders perspective.
“Every damn time I see a picture of one of you ladies with the focus on your arse, I cringe. Not because it’s you in a bikini, and not because you don’t look more than perfect. You all are. But because it’s becoming so common. It seems there is more arse than riding. More arse than ability. More arse than strength and dedication. More arse than art and class. Why as athletes do the girls feel the need to post so many images of them looking “hot”? Simple, they are trying to change their image, trying to gain more followers and traction in the sport. Trying to run the Alana of wake concept. Well good for you. If it’s working, awesome. Personally, I would like to see more photos or videos of the girls wakeboarding, learning new tricks, taking big hits in the name of progression and riding together. Does it inspire me when I’m looking at you in your bikini? No. Does it gain you more followers? Yes. Does it gain you more of a salary? Hard to say, I’m going to say probably not knowing what I know, no more than you putting in time at the gym, putting in time on the water and really inspiring the girls to get on the water, buying your sponsor’s products and making yourself valuable as a marketing tool.” – Hayley Smith

Melissa Marquardt dropping on the cover!

Today Alliance Wake runs and promotes women as much or more than any legitimate wake media company. Every one of these articles and videos is supported and pushed through our range of social media platforms, whether it be Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. All in all we are who we are, we are Alliance. The name Alliance came from a group of like minded people who had a vision for media representation of the sport that did not exist in 1999. Alliance is exactly what we hoped for it to be over 16 years ago and we encourage every dedicated wakeboarder, wakeskater and wakesurfer to be part of Alliance and help us to shape the future of wake sports. Send us ideas, send us photos, send us your stories and even send us your criticism as long as it is founded in something we actually did, not in something we did not do.

So, let me get this straight… every single one of the guys that graces your "elusive" cover comes begging on their hands and knees for you to feature them?? NOPE. I'm pretty sure you reach out to them. Or a sponsor sends you a nice check and then an athlete on that brand is coincidentally featured that month. The only respectable thing you kooks at Alliance could have done (after issuing such a sexist award) would be to tuck your tail between your legs and APOLOGIZE.

OMG! At one point you even had a female editor on board?!? Congratulations. You probably have a black friend, too.

Alliance has a history of featuring non-big name riders on the cover regardless of gender. If the shot is beautiful (lighting, framing, angle) and the trick is innovative (a different grab, a gnarly feature, a new trick) they will put it on the cover. If there photographer submits the photos to Alliance and it fits these qualities then the shot could end up on the cover, or in the sessions section. If a rider is featured that month they have a good chance at getting on the cover they were working with the magazine a lot shooting lots of photos thereby increasing their chances on getting a cover. Featured articles on riders are usually based on a buzz around a rider so people will want to read it. If you do interesting grabs and different tricks at new and interesting spots, a buzz will build around you and you could be featured one day.

If they "reach out" to anyone its the photographers who actually own the rights to the images. The photographers are most likely in contact with the editors all the time looking to get paid for their photos.

And yes the cover is exclusive as there is only one cover per issue it is a limited supply ergo it is exclusive.

You think magazines can smell that you just did a photoshoot with cover potential outcome? Dream on. If you we’re professional enough to have a shot at getting featured you would either have contacted Alliance to get your stuff in the magazine, or you would have asked them directly how to get featured and they would have explained to you that this is how the watersports business works. So much crying for nothing lately, women in wakeboarding should really stop spending time posing and step up their media game. Want to be a professional? Then act like one.

Anyone who says you don't love the ladies doesn't know their history. Work hard and produce great and innovative photos and videos if you want coverage. Move into VWC in a trailer, go on every winch mission you can, hit the gnarliest spots you can, and document the hell out of it.

You have supported ladies and it is much appreciated. Just really hard when people keep pulling away our very few opportunities in the industry.. Which Is Why I stick to Coaching and spreading good fun vibes about our sport. I don’t have goals of doing my biggest tricks anymore because the recognition isn’t there. If I land doubles it won’t pay my bills. So I just have fun and get pressy with the tricks I love. Although the it would be nice to have a bit more to work towards there are killer girls out there and we don’t publish because the funds aren’t there to even afford a camera.

You can find DSL cameras and lens on ebay and craigslist for cheap (like $300 for a set up including a lens). Take the time and learn to use it and shoot until the memory card is full. It really isn't that hard and you can end up getting really cool shots of you and your friends. If you think any of the shots are good enough you can send them to alliance and see what happens. You could even ask them for pointers.

Also, if you are only trying to do the "biggest tricks" for recognition you are in it for the wrong reasons. Ride for yourself.

Although Alliance has supported women in the past, what they are doing now is not necessarily good.

Yes the Wake Butt was a joke, but since Alliance took the time of their day to make an article about the riders butts and not a Female Rider of The Year, I see how A LOT of women could have been offended.

This website is completely driven off of HATE (hence the anonymous comments) The point of articles like Phil The Magician, WakeButt, The Ugly etc. is to set someone off, causing them to hate on other riders or to talk shit. After one person talks shit, either someone stands up against the hater or it will drive more haters to rip them to shreds. (We should all love each other)

Women standing up against this sexist award definitely got their point across, but it also drove loads of traffic to this website. Hundreds of people were offended by the wakebutt post.

I do believe that there should have been a Female Rider of The Year award. Julia Rick is the winningest athlete in the sport of womens wakeboarding, she rides better than a lot of male professional riders, won trick of the year and provided us with more video content than almost every male rider in the industry.

There are plenty of girls killing it out there and they are riding to achieve the same awards and goals us men are. I believe that they deserve more than a WakeButt award.

Clearly you didn’t read what was written. ITS NOT ABOUT WINNING CONTEST! Or THE HARDEST TRICK. Julia rick got a chance to ride with the guys at WTL and blew it pretty hard and then decided to go on live TV and tell everyone what a joke the contest was. Is that a role model and good ambassador? No.

Well said. It’s hard enough for these women to be professionals in the sport, especially if all the chauvinisic guys keep promoting this mentality. As men, we need to lift up the Queens in wake & stop objectifying them.

Ok so the editors didn't find any suitable photos for the cover or a lady who shreds and represents enough for a ROTY award, fine. Surprising but if thats the case… You are paid by sponsors to post pictures of bikini models, none of my businesses. The bills have to be payed right? Or did i misunderstand that?

But running something like wake butt, calling it comedy/lighthearted (please let me know if there is a better word for it) and then defending it when shitloads of people criticise it (not only female…) Really? Sexism is not a joke to most people.

I get it, it is kind of ironic that both bikinis and riding are posted on a professional wakeboarder's instagram. Who to blame for that, whether that is setting a good example or not, is another discussion. But If you guys really want to support women's shredding to 100% (obviously having a pretty good track record of that) drop the hypocrisy and post female wake content, not butt content, no matter for what reason.

This article is on point.
I can see how people who live in countries where the print magazine is not distributed, could totally misinterpret this and a lot of the Superlative awards. Without reading the magazine they would not know the style of Alliance and the history of taking the piss out of stuff like this, all the time.
It is definitely harder for athletes in the age of social media and a million web videos, and I'm sure a lot of people think that sticking a bunch of GoPro cable riding clips on YouTube and instagram'n photo's is all you need to do to be a pro. That is really not the case.

Contests are just advertising, they are meaningless really. Magazine's are the same, but there is a level of style and art to this media that doesn't exist in the 'spin to win' ideals of contests. Therefore to truly earn a 'Rider Of The Year' status, winning IWSF contests and putting some clips online is not enough. I respect Alliances decision to withhold an award rather than give it to someone for the sake of it
(Had she not been injured, Courtney Angus is a strong contender who acts like a ROTY should)

We all love boobies, but tweeting a photo of a boardslide while wearing a bikini top and short shorts is boring. Put a vest & helmet on and push yourself to progress your riding. Don't use a GoPro. Reach out to photographers and videographers to work on something unique and cool. Work with the wake media, be it Unleashed, Cable, Wake, Union, WakeboardingMag or Alliance. I want to read about the cool shit you are doing to push the sport, I could not care less about you hanging out at the cable.

If anyone out there wants to be taken seriously as a wakeboarder, male or female, the most important thing you can do is actually WAKEBOARD.

LMAO. This is a sport where some of the top riders in the game are paid in flat bill hats and terrible sun glasses. Contests start hours late because everyone running them are inept, high, or both; and the top publication is 12 photos wrapped around a 'boat buyers guide' featuring the same 2 companies that are the only thing propping up the industry.

If you can get one more elevated t-shirt because your ass looks good, enjoy it while it lasts.

"We Love Girls" – really? That is your response? You really don't get it, do you?
You are supposed to be journalists, editors and writers – telling stories in wakeboarding. If you only find stories because someone sent them to you then you are frigging lazy. If you stopped looking at girls butts, maybe you will notice how hard women's wakeboarding is ripping right now.

1. This article only says: I am not a racist as one of my friends is black.
2. You use your humor as an argument, that you can write everything you want even it hurts people, that is wrong. You pretend to say that your humor gives you a free pass to hurt people. Nobody his humor is a free pass to hurt others, nobody!
3. You blame riders not to send content which you use. You are journalists, the job of a journalist is to find news and content where they can write about in their magazine. You just simply said you are all lazy editors. If you don't get content how is it possible you only have these butt photos?
4. "f you want to promote the sport yourself, as well as act responsibly for the industry and set a good example for the youth, we suggest that you start by wearing a lifejacket and a helmet, because if you are an example to look up to, then you may be responsible to influencing a child who makes a decision that ends in tragedy."
Grow up, how childish is this. This has nothing to do with the subject.
Go to skateboarding and snowboarding where riders rock over stairs for ages and never wear a helmet.
You just don't have any good argument for the mistake you made and try to find bad things to say about the other party.

Face it, you guys made a huge mistake by doing this and you don't even have the grace and class to really admit it and apologize. You are only pointing to others like an angry kid.

This article only made it worse.

Be an adult and just really admit you were wrong and say sorry we will never do this again!

“If you want to promote the sport yourself, as well as act responsibly for the industry and set a good example for the youth, we suggest that you start by wearing a lifejacket and a helmet, because if you are an example to look up to, then you may be responsible to influencing a child who makes a decision that ends in tragedy.”

You say that you’ve done more for the industry, thus meaning people look to your magazines for guidance and you set the example. Isn’t it hypocritical in an article to tell girls in order to be responsible for the industry that they should wear helmets and vests to be better role models, yet you guys literally put photos of guys who aren’t wearing vests or helmets on sketchy setups in your magazine’s.

From my recollection, it was wakeboarding magazine who had that no life jacket policy. Alliance did not. They basically let pros be pros, and then had folks like collin wright publish an article about a flack jacket test. So your screen name is on the bold side, and you might want to take your own advice.

So if they post that little disclaimer with the vids, then why be so harsh on the ladies, and act like THAT'S what's holding back their coverage?

Since I'm here, I will just say that your voice, Alliance, is not what you think it is. When it first started, it was "irreverent", funny, and attractive to the core rider. Chase Heavener? Thomas Horrell? Matt Staker? Travis Dopp? Funny dudes–sign me up! I guess audiences change, along with the advertisers you now cater to. But your magazine is not that radical. The best mag with awesome articles, photos, layout and substance was Union, and now they don't even make a US print edition. And with all due respect, you are nowhere near that.

Also, Heather Lee was a radical lady on the wakeboarding magazine staff back in the mid 90s–I would say THAT was long before it was "hip or PC."

Damn Jamie, your ass is old AF. So, respect to your opinion but you're a bit out of touch.

I hear a lot of talk on this thread, people saying THEY KNOW how the mags work with the advertisers, that's how everything is played out. We'll if that's the case then why isn't there more mags and media companies in wake? I mean, if it's that obvious then why aren't the complainers on this thread running their own shit?

Union was fun for an art project, but that shit didn't last because there's a line between hobbies and going the distance. And they're notorious for ripping shit off so yeah, FKN rad. If your memory serves you then you're also aware of the laundry list of titles that never made it. So maybe it's not a place for amateur armchair quarterbacks?

And if Alliance isn't anywhere near being relevant then how the FK did you get here? Or did one of your equally out of touch friends say "hey Alliance posted this thing a month ago"…